Interview with the cover designer

Annie Atkins

*Who are you and what do you do?*

I'm Annie Atkins. I'm a graphic designer from Snowdonia in North Wales. I used to work in an ad agency in Reykjavik, but I've been in Ireland for the past three years now and am making it my home. I'm loving Dublin this summer.

*Tell us more about the cover?*

This is Lola, my friends David and Fiona's dog, keeping watch outside their house in The 'Batter – hence the D7 street sign. I'm told only people from The 'Batter are allowed to call it The 'Batter, but I lived there for six months so I qualify. What do you mean that's not long enough?

*Where can we see more of your work?*

I'm having an exhibition of American travel photography at The Joinery, opening on July 22nd, where I'll be reading from my book _To the Left of the Midwest_ . More of my work can be seen on the Guardian website.

*How do you create your stuff?*

I take lots of photographs. I'm not the kind of designer who works well with bare text and graphics – I like images. I layer them together in Photoshop and play around with type in Illustrator until I get something that works, using different layer modes to give things a bit of depth.

_...Annie Atkins takes up cover duties again next week..._